Dirtland

Every time you walk on the ground you step on billions of
microbes. Microbes live in the soil, on rocks, inside roots, buried
under miles of Earth, in compost piles and toxic waste, and all over
the Earth's surface. Microbes are found in boiling hot springs and on
frozen snowfields. Microbes live in homes, in schools and on
statues.

Millions and Billions of Microbes

Many millions of moving microbes make a mighty living munching
manure in the soil. Each gram of soil may contain up to 1,000,000,000
or more microbes. That's as many microbes in a single gram of soil as
there are people in all of China!

Rich Biodiversity

Not only are their many microbes in soil, there are many, many
different species of microbes in soil. Some scientists estimate that
each gram of soil may contain 10,000 different species of
microorganisms! That's more biodiversity in one gram of soil than all
the different types of mammals in the entire world. That's also more
than all species of bacteria than have been cataloged (around
5,000)!

This section of the zoo includes many microbial habitats in
addition to those found strictly in soil. These include compost,
toxic wastes, hot springs, snow, and on statues.

Although we have grouped these microbes into "Dirtland," all
microbes must be surrounded by water in order to live. However, a
microbe can be surrounded by water less than 1 mm deep.

Some of the subsections of DirtLand include:

Home
Sweet Home
See what lives on your cutting board, on your shower curtain, in your couch
and in your carpet.

Hot Springs
Some microbes can survive temperatures about the boiling point. These are
called thermophiles.

House
of Horrors
Visit monsters of the microbial world. See vampire bacteria that suck the
life juices from other bacteria, Bdellovibrio, which gets inside other bacteria
and eats their guts out, and fungi that strangle worms.

Ice Land
Some microbes live on snow and ice and die at room temperature. These are
called psychrophiles.